Ricky Rubio has heard the rumors. He has read the headlines. The point guard is well aware that Kevin Love has no interest of re-signing with the Minnesota Timberwolves and will head elsewhere in 2015 if he is not traded beforehand. The forward is easily the best player on the Minnesota roster and essential for any kind of success for the team. His return means the team has at least a small chance of remaining competitive and avoiding a complete rebuilding phase. That is why Rubio plans to push hard for Love to remain with the team.
Currently in Italy at an adidas Eurocamp, Rubio plans on heading back to Los Angeles in hopes of getting in some training time with Love. During that time the point guard plans to push hard for his teammate to consider re-signing in 2015 so that Minnesota stands a better shot of getting better players to join as well.
"I don't want to convince him if he doesn't want to stay. But I want him to stay and I'm going to tell him what I think, which is we've been improving every year and he's a great player, he helps us a lot," Rubio said, via NBA.com. "I think we need to make the next step. ... The media says it's pretty settled, but I don't know what he thinks. What I've been hearing is from the media, not from him, so I don't trust that. It can be an opinion from you guys. I just really want to talk to him as a teammate."
The Love and Rubio pairing certainly improved the Timberwolves over the past few seasons, upping their win totals in the past three seasons. But the team has not been to the postseason since 2003-04 and they need that to change. Of course, keeping Love and Rubio together helps that effort and the point guard notes it would be tough to see him leave.
"If he leaves, it's going to be painful because he's a main guy. But it depends what we get back for him," Rubio said. "We'll see what we can do. I don't think going through a rebuild year is going to help us because we've been improving every year and now we're so close to making the playoffs that it doesn't make sense to rebuild it again. It's not continuing what we were doing."
Right now, every team in the league is preparing a trade offer for Love. The Chicago Bulls have already offer Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler for the forward. The Boston Celtics believe that stand a very good chance at getting Love. According to the Boston Globe, the team will offer players like Jeff Green, Jared Sullinger and Kelly Olynyk and a draft pick for the Timberwolves star player. Now that Love has said his intentions to test the market, his future is out of his and Rubio's hands.